Mess at SKIMS

Though the working of S K Institute of Medical Sciences much popularly called SKIMS the main tertiary referral health care centre in Kashmir valley should have been the issue of priority for the government but the way three doctors were suspended on charges of undertaking private practice in violation of the existing rules and the Director of this prestigious medical institute was attached shows the non seriousness of the government in taking decisions concerning the institutional and administrative accountability of doctors. True it is that the three doctors facing the charges of undertaking private practice were suspended for the right reasons but the attachment of the Director of the institute Dr G N Ahangar is both surprising and as well as questionable. Knowing that giving the charge of the institute’s director to the administrative secretary of the Heallth and Medical Education department would almost render this institute headless as administrative secretary sitting in the civil secretariat in the winter capital Jammu won’t be able to show his physical presence in the institute premises for overseeing the working of the hospital, the decision of attaching the Director not facing charges of misconduct or irregularity is questionable on many counts.
The government was also knowing it fully that it won’t find it easy to appoint a new director in place of Dr G N Ahangar as the procedural technicalities for the appointment of a new director can’t be cleared overnight but it took a hasty decision for unknown reasons. Better it would have been for the government to allow Dr G N Ahangar to continue to hold the position of the Director till the completion of the inquiry against the three doctors suspended on charges of undertaking private practices in violation of the existing rules on private practice of doctors working in SKIMS Soura. As was expected the attachment of the Director SKIMS without any substantial charges of misconduct or irregularity was bound to trigger resentment against the government and the strike by resident doctors today badly hit the patient care services in this main tertiary referral hospital of the state. So by all standards of understandabilities the actions of the government have created a mess at SKIMS instead of enforcing administrative and institutional accountability in this main tertiary referral hospital in Kashmir valley. While the government is bound to enforce institutional and administrative accountability in the public institutions but at the same time the competent authorities have to take care of the public conveniences and when it comes to the issue of uninterrupted patient care facilities the government has to take every precaution to ensure smooth working of the institutions. Now government under the mounting political pressure would take corrective measures to restore the patient care facilities at SKIMS Soura but better it would have been for the government to take actions in the interests of the public conveniences but not in the interests of the administration.